Membership

Membership Selection Process

First year day and evening students and second year evening students are eligible for membership. To apply, all eligible students must participate in the Write-on Competition, which takes place immediately following Spring semester finals each year. The write-on application includes (1) a case note or comment, (2) a Bluebooking exercise, (3) student grades, and (4) an optional student statement of interest. Applications are reviewed blindly and JICL will select 20-25 students based on consideration of their application as a whole.

Reasons to Join

JICL provides students with a valuable opportunity to refine their research, writing, and editing skills while building their professional network and learning about a unique and exciting area of law. JICL is a practitioner-focused journal that stresses practical training and gives students a chance to demonstrate hard work and dedication – skills that all employers weigh very heavily in making hiring decisions. Additionally, JICL offers a tight-knit community of dedicated alumni who support new members in their Journal candidacy and into their professional careers. See our Alumni Page for more information. Each Candidate Member also has the chance to compete for the honor of having his or her casenote or comment published in the following year’s volume. While JICL membership requires hard work and commitment, we believe it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your law school career.

Candidate Member Responsibilities

A student’s candidacy year involves a lot of hard work and a large time commitment, but successful completion of this year demonstrates that the student is prepared to take on the rigors of editing and publishing a scholarly legal journal. First, each candidate member is required to write a unique scholarly casenote or comment discussing and analyzing a topic in international commercial law. A typical student casenote or comment ranges from 25-50 pages double-spaced and should be heavily sourced through footnotes. Candidate Members will also be assigned approximately four “spading” assignments throughout the year. Spading consists of retrieving the sources used in forthcoming articles and reviewing each of the footnotes to ensure that the cited material supports the statement made by the author and that the citations follow proper Bluebook formatting. Candidate Members will also participate in other JICL activities, such as preparation for an annual Symposium. Matriculating onto JICL as a full member is dependent upon satisfactory completion of all responsibilities.

Contact information

If you have any questions regarding JICL, the membership selection process, or being a Candidate Member, please do not hesitate to contact the Board of Editors at info@georgemasonjicl.org.